Mission Statement
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is a new cultural experience celebrating the diversity of individual expression and a space for sharing and developing creative ideas.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is an opportunity for cultural networking and a place to keep up to date with new evolving ideas.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is a new internet experience celebrating the diversity of individual expression and a cultural utility for sharing and developing creative ideas. It can be a networking utility to showcase your creativity rather than your social activity.
Culture Colony – Y Wladfa Newydd will pioneer film making for a new age where viewers are no longer expected to sit passively simply accepting what they are given. They will become users of the medium, empowered to actively engage in the way the stories are delivered and even in the film making process itself. Users will be able to explore databases and contact artists, galleries and other cultural organisations. They will be able to create their own groups and exhibit work of their own. This is an enhanced cultural experience for anyone to join.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is an opportunity for cultural networking and a place to keep up to date with new ideas as they form. It's a service for those who wish to interact creatively and for those who have an interest in new ideas and cultural development. As well as the ability to share, discuss and comment on ideas, Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd will also provide content in the form of films, text and photography, focused on the creative process and the development of ideas.
In a time when market and political forces dominate the technological advances of mass communication and broadcasting, homogonising the cultural ambition of the population to the service of profit and power, it is essential that there is an independent community for those who do not wish to conform so easily. Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is this place, for the unique individual expression of each of its members, providing a platform for true cultural evolution.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is a cultural networking utility enabling its members to share ideas and create communities.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd commissions content in the form of films, photography and text, focused on the creative process and critical analysis.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is a platform to showcase cultural activities and provides a forum for debate.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is an independent voice and its membership can respond immediately to the cultural issues and concerns of the day.
"The cultural importance of having a platform for current arts news, debate and associated creativity cannot be emphasised enough and this rather neatly describes what Wales as a country simply hasn’t got and this initiative will ensure that we get it." Hugh Adams, Art Critic
"For programmes to achieve a real insight into an artists work a freer and more creative form needs to be developed where style, length and pace are appropriate to the artist’s idea and intention. Culture Colony has the potential to represent art and culture in an unrestricted way and I look forward to experiencing the results." David Nash, Artist
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd will -
1/ champion individual vision and creativity.
2/ utilise new technologies and mass communication to explore new cultural expression and creative potential.
3/ promote cultural activity both at home and abroad to a wide and diverse audience.
4/ create new cultural communities and develop links between cultural communities within Wales and world wide.
5/ facilitate artists and galleries to exchange information.
6/ create an arena for instant debate and critical analysis of cultural issues.
7/ enhance the public's cultural experience.
8/ promote understanding and appreciation of the arts.
9/ build audiences both new and existing for a wider interaction with the arts and general cultural activity.
10/ encourage education in new media and film making, especially in rural areas.
11/ facilitate a bi-annual exhibition of exciting and stimulating new art works (in a physical space as well as the virtual space within the web site).
12/assist in professional development for artists.
13/ provide a context to create art and appreciate cultural experiences in a completely new environment within both a local and global perspective.
14/ remain independent and retain our integrity.
the place for sharing creative ideas / y wladfa newydd, hafan syniadau creadigol
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is based both in the real world and in the virtual and is creating a creative space for anyone with an interest in culture and ideas to explore. We are holding conferences, seminars, studio visits, concerts and exhibitions in the real world that can continue the networking opportunities, dialogues and discussions in the virtual world through the web site.
www.culturecolony.com is a cultural networking web site that contains a large ammount of video content concerning creativity and culture in Wales. If you feel that culturally you are being badly served by television, whether you're an artist or not, this is the place for you. As the world goes through its financial crisis we need to explore new creative potentials that will enable our cultural evolution to continue apace into the future. The time is right for Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd and we will play our part by providing a platform for experiment and celebration with a window for the world to look in and join in.
One of the aims of Culture Colony is to address this problem for the arts and fill the gap that traditional television broadcasters and the print media are, for a number of reasons, unwilling or unable to supply. Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd will provide stimulating, creative content for a world wide audience. This 'channel' on the internet will open the way for more involvement from an arts audience and from arts practitioners through a series of innovative projects aimed at interactivity, involvement and education, enabling Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd to grow and evolve with its membership.
Where television can only offer its audience an almost totally passive experience Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd will not only offer interactivity for the audience but its main purpose will be to stimulate cultural growth through the direct involvement of the audience with the web site.
Subscribers will be people interested in art and culture; people involved in creative industries and arts practitioners themselves. Schools, colleges and arts organisations can apply for group subscriptions. It is envisaged that subscribers will reside in many countries around the world.
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is our cultural front line populated by anyone with an interest in our cultural development and concerned about our creative expression.
Visit us at Creative Unit 08, Aberystwyth Arts Centre. For directions please see the contact us page
Content Providers -
Pixel Foundry
Pixel Foundry is a television production company established in 2001. Specialising in stories originating from Mid Wales we have made programs and series’ for BBC Wales, S4C and ITV 1 Wales. This specialisation on our region has not limited our vision as these stories have taken us from Machynlleth to the Sahara Desert, from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Kansas and from Gladestry to Moscow. For these, our own productions, we have covered stories dealing with Solar Science, Religion, The Royal Family, Life and Death.
We have also made programs for many other production companies in Wales that have covered a wide spectrum of subject matter from the arts to politics and rural affairs - shooting in the UK and world wide.
Funding
Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd is a subscription driven project but it would not have launched without private and public funding initiatives. We would like to acknowledges the generous support it is receiving through the content provided by Pixel Foundry Artists Archive and the development of the Culture Colony - Y Wladfa Newydd web site is supported in part by cyfle i greu chance to create which is managed by Powys County Council’s Arts Development Service in close collaboration with Powys Arts Forum. This project is part funded through the Rural Development Plan for Wales 2007 - 2013 and financed by the European Union and the Welsh Assembly Government. The private funders know who you are and we are eternally greatful for your valuable advice, engaged encouragement and truly generous support.
